Capillary can be purchased in a variety of formats, including:

• Bulk:  The majority of capillary is supplied to the market in long, continuous lengths on Styrofoam® or plastic spools. Spool lengths depend on production specifications and customer order requirements; each spool is individually bagged. Capillary ends are fused closed to maintain a clean, inert internal surface. All material is supplied with an appropriate label that includes the part number, lot number, length, and other pertinent information.

• Precut:  Capillary is often precut to customer specified dimensions. Length can vary from a few millimeters up to tens or hundreds of meters. Attention is given to critical parameters, such as length tolerance, end finish quality, cleanliness, packaging, and lot traceability. Parts are packaged in groups, but can be individually packaged if required.

• Windowed Capillaries:  Polymicro also supplies precision windowed capillary tubing. Parts are supplied with the polyimide coating removed over a defined length at a specified distance from one end of the capillary section. This provides an optical quality window that has excellent mechanical properties as well. In addition to the window location and quality, attention is given to other critical parameters such as overall length, end finish quality, cleanliness, packaging, and lot traceability. 

• Coils:  GC columns can be pre-coiled to length, or more commonly multiples of thier final length.  Polymicro produces these products, referred to as coils, which allows for efficient production of finished GC columns.

• Arrays and Assemblies:  Capillary is routinely used to build arrays and other assemblies, just as with optical fiber. It is even possible to combine capillary tubing with optical fiber into the same assembly, reducing the amount of assembly required in the final instrument. Handling techniques become very important when dealing with capillary arrays and assemblies (discussed in the Appendix). Bonding materials and other potential contaminates must be kept from the interior of the capillary while building a sturdy assembly that will survive the application requirements. Polymicro’s experience with handling and building capillary assemblies can save product devlopment time and optimize production efficiency, reducing overall costs.

 

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